Xenoceratops: the ‘alien horned-face’ dinosaur discovered in Canada

It lived 80 million years ago, but looks not a day older than 79 million years.

A new species of horned dinosaur, called the xenoceratops—"alien horned-face"—has been discovered in fossil beds in Alberta, Canada.

The discovery is based on remains from at least three adult-sized individuals, which were identified from fossils originally collected in 1958. The creatures would have been approximately six meters long and would have weighed more than two metric tons each.

The xenoceratops was a herbivore with a parrot-like beak, two long brow horns above its eyes and a large frill protruding from the back of its skull with two additional large spikes. It lived around 80 million years ago, making it one of the oldest ceratopsids, the group of large-bodied horned dinosaurs that includes triceratops.

David Evans from the Royal Ontario Museum and University of Toronto said: "Xenoceratops provides new information on the early evolution of ceratopsids. The early fossil record of ceratopsids remains scant, and this discovery highlights just how much more there is to learn about the origin of this diverse group."

Evans and his colleague Michael Ryan stumbled upon the undescribed material more than a decade ago and recognized the bones as a new type of horned dinosaur. Evans later discovered a 50-year-old plaster field jacket—fossils that have been covered in bandages and plaster to protect them while they are dug out—at the Canadian Museum of Nature. This contained more skull bones from the same fossil area, so Evans prepared them in his lab.

Ryan and Evans have been trying to fill in gaps in our knowledge of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs and their evolution through their Southern Alberta Dinosaur Project. They are focusing on the palaeontology of some of the oldest dinosaur-bearing rocks in Alberta, which is less studied than other Canadian fossil regions.

From the link:"Xenoceratops (Xeno + ceratops) means "alien horned-face," referring to the strange pattern of horns on its head and the scarcity of horned dinosaur fossils from this part of the fossil record. It also honors the Village of Foremost, located close to where the dinosaur was discovered."

From the link:"Xenoceratops (Xeno + ceratops) means "alien horned-face," referring to the strange pattern of horns on its head and the scarcity of horned dinosaur fossils from this part of the fossil record. It also honors the Village of Foremost, located close to where the dinosaur was discovered."

Strange pattern of horns on its head? It's not like they're asymmetrical or something. In that respect wouldn't all dinosaur horns be considered strange to us? And how does the name honor the village the fossils were found near? Call it 'Foreceratops' for the "strange" pattern of horns on its forehead and to honor the "Village of Foremost".

From the link:"Xenoceratops (Xeno + ceratops) means "alien horned-face," referring to the strange pattern of horns on its head and the scarcity of horned dinosaur fossils from this part of the fossil record. It also honors the Village of Foremost, located close to where the dinosaur was discovered."

Strange pattern of horns on its head? It's not like they're asymmetrical or something. In that respect wouldn't all dinosaur horns be considered strange to us? And how does the name honor the village the fossils were found near? Call it 'Foreceratops' for the "strange" pattern of horns on its forehead and to honor the "Village of Foremost".

I think the frill reminded the researcher of the "xenomorphs" in Aliens.

Strange pattern of horns on its head? It's not like they're asymmetrical or something. In that respect wouldn't all dinosaur horns be considered strange to us? And how does the name honor the village the fossils were found near? Call it 'Foreceratops' for the "strange" pattern of horns on its forehead and to honor the "Village of Foremost".

Why do dino-artist still use a desert-reptilian color palette to depict kaki dinosaurs? It's known that at least some feathered archosaurs had dark fethers, probably to use as a camo when hunting among dense vegetation; it only makes sense that ceratopsids developed color pigments to match their environment, which didn't include arid deserts. Also for all we know they where likely under heavy sexual-selected pressure to develop those flashy frills, so it most likely had strong coloration like the ornaments of most animals with good color-sight.

Why do dino-artist still use a desert-reptilian color palette to depict kaki dinosaurs? It's known that at least some feathered archosaurs had dark fethers, probably to use as a camo when hunting among dense vegetation; it only makes sense that ceratopsids developed color pigments to match their environment, which didn't include arid deserts. Also for all we know they where likely under heavy sexual-selected pressure to develop those flashy frills, so it most likely had strong coloration like the ornaments of most animals with good color-sight.

Like humans? Oh, wait...

Jokes aside, people are used to seeing deserty dinos. If you suddenly made it colorful, people are less likely to find it believable because it's so different from what they usually see.

It is also a good resource by a paleonthologist. The significance of the find is its early ceratopsid characterization but especially how the ornamentation changed:

"Given the age of Xenoceratops, and the fact that it had long brow horns and a short nasal horn, instead of the long nasal horn-short brow horns combo seen in its later relatives, it isn’t surprising that the dinosaur seems to be at the base of the centrosaurine family tree."

"“Xenoceratops has very well developed frill ornamentation comprised of a series of large spikes and hooks, occurring at multiple parietal loci, that foreshadows the great diversity of these structures in other species that occur later in the Campanian,” Evans says, and this indicates that “complex frill ornamentation is older than we may have thought.”"

"Still, Evans cautions that Xenoceratops is presently a very scrappy dinosaur. We need more fossils to fully reconstruct this dinosaur and confirm its place in the ceratopsid family tree."

Note: "very scrappy" is a technical term that translates in layman terms as "a few bone fragments".

Quote:

It lived 80 million years ago, but looks not a day older than 79 million years.

That's tough, seeing how the finds are dated to a young "approximately 78 Ma" in the abstract.

Strange pattern of horns on its head? It's not like they're asymmetrical or something. In that respect wouldn't all dinosaur horns be considered strange to us?

"In fact, paleontologists know relatively little about dinosaur diversity and evolution during the middle part of the Cretaceous–a critical evolutionary time period for ceratopsians, tyrannosaurs and other lineages that came to dominate the Late Cretaceous landscape. If we are ever going to solve the mystery of how ceratopsids evolved, and why they were such garishly adorned dinosaurs, we must search the lost world of the mid-Cretaceous." [ http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosau ... mily-tree/ ]

It's "strange" also since it reverses later patterns: "it had long brow horns and a short nasal horn, instead of the long nasal horn-short brow horns combo seen in its later relatives".

Why do dino-artist still use a desert-reptilian color palette to depict kaki dinosaurs? It's known that at least some feathered archosaurs had dark fethers, probably to use as a camo when hunting among dense vegetation; it only makes sense that ceratopsids developed color pigments to match their environment, which didn't include arid deserts. Also for all we know they where likely under heavy sexual-selected pressure to develop those flashy frills, so it most likely had strong coloration like the ornaments of most animals with good color-sight.

Large herd animals often fail to match their environment in that way. Think about bison, wildebeast, musk ox, etc. Zebra are black and white and live on temperate grasslands. Furthermore, you don't need a desert environment for khaki and other light browns to be advantageous. WIld horses in Mongolia live in steppe-lands. They are a mix of browns.

Furthermore, I can't think of any modern herd animals that have evolved color-scheme sexual selection as you describe. It is an advantage for herd animals to look as similar to each other as possible, so as to limit the ability of carnivores to pick out one animal to focus on.

Why do dino-artist still use a desert-reptilian color palette to depict kaki dinosaurs? It's known that at least some feathered archosaurs had dark fethers, probably to use as a camo when hunting among dense vegetation; it only makes sense that ceratopsids developed color pigments to match their environment, which didn't include arid deserts. Also for all we know they where likely under heavy sexual-selected pressure to develop those flashy frills, so it most likely had strong coloration like the ornaments of most animals with good color-sight.

Large herd animals often fail to match their environment in that way. Think about bison, wildebeast, musk ox, etc. Zebra are black and white and live on temperate grasslands. Furthermore, you don't need a desert environment for khaki and other light browns to be advantageous. WIld horses in Mongolia live in steppe-lands. They are a mix of browns.

Furthermore, I can't think of any modern herd animals that have evolved color-scheme sexual selection as you describe. It is an advantage for herd animals to look as similar to each other as possible, so as to limit the ability of carnivores to pick out one animal to focus on.

The thing to compare to isn't herd mammals but flocking birds. You are right though. I can't think of any birds that habitually congregate that use color that way either.